Centre strangulating Kerala by cutting down financial grants: Kerala FM

Kerala Finance Minister K.N. Balagopal alleged on Saturday that the practice now being followed by the Centre is to strangulate the state by cutting down on its rightful share of grants and loans.

"This is done for obvious political reasons, and is a challenge for the people of Kerala. There should be a protest against this attitude of the Centre. Reducing the grants and the cutting down on loans will bring the development of the state to a grinding halt," Balagopal said.

The ruling Left government in Kerala is now planning to rope in the Congress-led opposition to stage a joint protest against the Centre on this issue.

Incidentally, during the present fiscal, the limit of availing loans was fixed at Rs 32,440 crore. But permission so far has been given to avail loans of only Rs 15,390 crore.

In the previous fiscal, the limit was Rs 23,000 crore.

Meanwhile, Union Minister of State for External Affairs, V. Muraleedharan, said that Pinarayi Vijayan could have brought this issue to the attention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the Niti Aayog meeting on Saturday, but the Chief Minister boycotted the meet.

"The Kerala government should come clear with its financial position. I wish to know if the loans are being availed for state minister's to go on foreign trips? We recently heard that the state government's representative in Delhi is being paid an honorarium of Rs 1 lakh. I wish to know if loans are being availed for such purposes," Muraleedharan said.

--IANS

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